XML Working Group
Meeting Notes
February 18, 2004
Owen Ambur announced that on February 23 he would be starting a new job in the Office of the CIO for the Department of the Interior and that his new position description includes the title of Chief XML Strategist for Interior.
Joe Chiusano briefed the group on Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS). It enables complex workflow and provides for asynchronous content message correlation, using correlation sets that provide unique identifiers, e.g., by combining customer ID and purchase order number. Joe expressed the hope that Microsoft and IBM would make WS-Addressing an open standard. Compensation handlers are specified to provide for roll-back of transactions that fail to execute completely. Implementors include Collaxa, Cape Clear, and Choreology. Rex Brooks expressed the hope that sufficient acknowledgments will be provided by BPEL4WS to keep participants apprised of the status of long-running transactions. Joe’s presentation is available at http://xml.gov/presentations/bah2/bpel4ws.htm
Sharon Hanger addressed Business Process Modeling Language (BPML) and Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN). BPML is an abstract model and XML syntax for expressing executable business processes and supporting entities. BPML provides for graphical presentation of BPML. Ken Sall asked about the advantage of BPMN versus Unified Modeling Language (UML), e.g., with reference to the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA), and Sharon indicated business analysts are more familiar with the graphics of BPMN than UML. Owen Ambur suggested that both BPMN and UML should be subjected to usability analysis, and Duane Degler concurred. Sharon’s presentation is available at http://xml.gov/presentations/bah1/bpml.htm
Michael Grim filled in for Sinisa Zimek, who was unable to participate due to illness. Michael noted that SAP was formerly highly proprietary but is now aiming to implement open standards. SAP’s NetWeaver provides for integration at the data level and NetWeaver itself is comprised of three levels – process, information, and people. The process level is addressed through business process modeling in SAP’s enterprise architecture exchange infrastructure (EA-XI). The information layer is comprised of the business intelligence (BI) tool, master data management tool for flowing data across systems, and the knowledge management (KM) tool for managing unstructured data. The people layer is addressed through SAP’s enterprise portal, mobile infrastructure, and collaboration tools. SAP’s Web application server supports Java and ABAP.
Due to the short notice of the need to substitute for Sinisa, Michael did not have a formal presentation. However, he sketched the levels and components of NetWeaver on a flip chart. A graphic containing the elements that he sketched is available at http://xml.gov/presentations/sap/NetWeaverStack.jpg
Introducing the next series of presentations on XML registry services, Roy Morgan indicated that registry usability/accessibility issues may be addressed at the March 17 meeting of the working group.
Diane Lewis, who is working on the electronic case filing project at DOJ, is one of several U.S. federal employees who contribute to the initiatives of the OASIS e-Gov Technical Committee. In that capacity she is acting as editor of OASIS’s e-Gov focus area. http://egovernment.xml.org/ The e-Gov TC is drafting a list of requirements for XML registries and mapping the list to the relevant standards. The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has identified high level registry requirements and has agreed to collaborate with the OASIS e-Gov TC, which is chaired by John Borras, in developing a pilot registry initiative. The UK MOD exchanges data with U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), which in the future might be a MOD registry user. The pilot registry will need to address the requirements for classified information exchanges. An outline of Diane’s remarks is available at http://xml.gov/presentations/oasis3/egovTCregistry.htm
Diane suggested we should determine the degree to which we may wish to participate in the e-Gov TC’s registry pilot. Joe Chiusano noted that Paul Spencer of John Borras’ staff is a member of OASIS’s ebXML Registry TC. Diane said a committee is forming to identify a common set of requirements. David Webber inquired about NIST involvement. Roy Morgan indicated he would explore prospects for NIST’s participation and Judy Newton inquired whether the British Standards Institution (BSI) has been engaged. http://www.bsi.org.uk Lee Ellis asked whether the folks working on registries in Canada, Britain, Hong Kong, and elsewhere have been asked what they are trying to accomplish. David said Paul Spencer’s proposal lays out how the UK wants to start and that within the next 3 or 4 months they are looking for a deliverable to provide an 80 percent solution. He also suggested the return on investment needs to be very clear and he expressed the opinion that the greatest ROI lies in a noun dictionary.
Ed Chase explained PDF-Archiving (PDF-A) and Adobe’s eXtensible Metadata Platform (XMP). He also cited some registry use cases. PDF-A is on track for establishment as an ISO standard for records archival within the next year. PDF and XML complement each other. The addition of XML metadata to PDF provides for both fidelity and accessibility over the long periods of time for which records may need to be maintained. PDF-A is a subset of PDF that strips out features that are unacceptable for record-keeping purposes. Bob Benedict asked if PDF-A is compliant with Section 508.
XMP is one of the first major, comprehensive implementations of Resource Description Framework (RDF), which is used to structure the labels for the metadata. It can be used in conjunction with content management systems. In the future, Adobe’s XML registry will be able to read XMP directly from incoming documents and automatically populate standard registry metadata fields. However, Ed indicated Adobe has not decided whether the registry will have a user interface or whether it will just provide an application programming interface (API) to enable others to build the user interfaces. David Webber indicated OASIS’s intention is to point to other registries from its registry. Renee Lewis asked about the value proposition for XML registries and indicated she has difficulty establishing the business case to the Social Security Administration (SSA).
Ed’s presentation is available at http://xml.gov/presentations/adobe/PDFA-XMP-Registry.pdf
Those in physical attendance included:
Owen Ambur, Co-Chair
Lee Ellis, Co-Chair, GSA
Roy Morgan, NIST, head of our Registry Project Team
Bruce Altner, NASA/SAIC
Annie Barr, GSA
Robert Benedict, NASA
Ed Chase, Adobe
Joe Chiusano, Booz Allen Hamilton
Duane Degler, IPGems
Jim Disbrow, DOE
Sukomar Dwarkanath, Comcare Alliance
James Feagans, DOJ
Ken Gill, DOJ
Michael Grim, SAP
Sharon Hanger, Booz Allen Hamilton
Amin Hassam, i411
Renee Lewis, Lockheed Martin/SSA
Judith Newton, NIST
Patrick Mullen, USAID
Russ Ruggiero, HumanML TC
Ken Sall, SiloSmashers
John Sarazen, Level8 Systems
Tadgh Smith, IBM
Participating by teleconference were:
Marc LeMaitre, Cordance (formerly OneName)
Steve Horneman, XAware
Rex Brooks, OASIS, HumanML & WSRP TCs
